New book examines China's economic reforms

Nov. 3, 2004

KALAMAZOO--A Western Michigan University economist has just
published a book about the new economic transformation in China,
a reform he calls "almost as radical as the Communist revolution
that Mao instigated."

"China's Reform and Reformers," by Dr. Alfred K.
Ho, WMU professor emeritus of economics, was published recently
by Greenwood Publishing Group of Westport, Conn. The book tells
the story of the economic, political and social struggles in
post-Maoist China, through the accounts of some 20 prominent
reform leaders. Publication of Ho's work marks the first time
some of those leaders' tales have ever appeared in the West.

"Contemporary Chinese are seeking to find solutions to
their problems that reflect their own cultural values,"
says Ho. "Reform in China cannot be seen solely as an effort
to emulate the West and the free market and democratic structure
of the United States. Rather, it's a prolonged and continual
process to deal with both their internal problems and the challenges
and opportunities that have come with greater contact with the
outside world."

The book details the contributions of such well-known figures
as Zhou Enlai, whose ping-pong diplomacy brought U.S. President
Nixon to China and began the normalization of U.S./China relations;
and Deng Xiaoping, Mao's successor who began as a Robin Hood-like
figure and ultimately turned China back from the Russian model
of a planned economy and launched in its place, free enterprise
and free trade. Lesser known reformers also are described.

"These are reformers who put their lives on the line,"
Ho says. "I set out to document the political and economic
dynamics and what they did to turn their country from an impoverished
nation to a world economic power."

Because the reformers struggled against Communist fundamentalists
during a period Ho calls "one of the bloodiest episodes
in Chinese history," China's reformers went through hell
to bring their nation to its current state, Ho notes.

The book describes in detail events ranging from the 1920
formation of the Chinese Communist Party to the 1989 massacre
of student dissidents in Tiananmen Square and the handover of
Hong Kong in 1997 and passage in 2000 of the U.S.-China Trade
Bill.

Ho details the lives of the reformers and intertwines their
personal tales with the historical events that swirled around
them. Much of his information came from background he gathered
and interviews he conducted during eight trips to China. His
work, he says, was done during a period in which many academics
and most publishers retained a stereotypical picture of China
as a belligerent power.

Ho taught at WMU for 22 years before his retirement in 1989.
He was born in Peking and earned a bachelor's degree at Yenching
University before coming to this country to earn a master's degree
at the University of Washington in 1942. He also earned a doctoral
degree in political science from Princeton University in 1944
before serving as the assistant secretary of the Chinese Embassy
in Washington, D.C. from 1944 to 1946. He earned a second doctoral
degree in economics from the University of California-Los Angeles.

Ho has been investigating the development of the Chinese economy
since 1951, when he was a research associate at the Stanford
Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. "China's Reform
and Reformers" is his third book on the Chinese economy.
He is the author of four other books on the Far East as well.